A snuggly Christmas!

Hi everyone! Hope you're all doing good! First of all, I'd like to say hello to my new followers and to say thanks, I will come and visit you! x

Have been busy again this week so no time for crafting but have a few cards in reserve I've previously made so I can at least show you those when I'm busy! I was so lucky last week- I had 2 challenge wins! I won 10 digi images from Pollycraft and a wee stamp set from A Passion For Papertrey- thanks guys!

So my card today is a simple Forever Friends Christmas one. A bit of a less is more card as I'm hoping the colouring does the talking! :0)

I coloured him with watercolour pencils blended with Gamsol. Originally when I coloured, I used water with my watercolour pencils (unsurprisingly!!) which is why I bought lyra pencils to use with Gamsol to try a more blended approach. A couple of months ago I decided to try watercolour pencils with Gamsol and found out that they work just as well as lyra!! Anyhoo -now I have a bigger selection of colours to work with and find that I enjoy mixing up media and using different medias all at once. Now sometimes when I colour with copics, I add watercolour/lyra shading over the top. It's good to mix it up and experiment!

Paper is by MME I think.Usual close up! Doesn't he look cute and snuggly?!

I'd like to enter this into:

Forever Friends- anything goes

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Forever Friends); Watercolour pencils; Copics; Paper (MME?); Assorted cardstock; Gems; Sentiment (Craftwork Cards); Ribbon; Star brad (Lakeland)

Anyone who says....

Hello all. I've had rather a busy week this week so not alot of time for crafting. On a personal note, I have some great news about my Mum- she has passed another 3 month check up with no signs of cancer!

I'm also an extremely proud wife this week as my husband's video game has been released to amazing reviews!! You may have seen adverts for it- Batman: Arkham City! It has been my husband's baby and he has worked SOOOOO hard on it. They are calling it "game of the year"!!!! What a proud wife I am!!!

I feel quite grotty today as am suffering with cold and cough. I haven't had a cold for absolutely ages!!

Anyway onto the cards, I have a couple to show you today...

First up is my Stamping Bella card. I used "Rainneverstoppedmeabella". I love this image- so great to paper piece. I think this would make a great card for someone who's unwell or feeling a bit down. Don't you just love these papers?! They are Vintage Vogue by Pink Paislee. A bit pastelly for what I usually use but I fell in love with them. I used a mixture of lyra & watercolour pencils, together with paper piecing and of course shaded my paper piecing as well. I used a Die-namics die for the border strip.

A close up! Can you see the rain?!!!

I'd like to enter this into:

Stamping Bella- sketch

Cute and Girly- anything goes

My Time to Craft- punches/dies (nestie rectangle & die-namic border)

Fussy and Fancy- 3 bs (black background paper, die-namic border, glitter rain is bling)

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Stamping Bella); Watercolour & lyra pencils; Copics; Paper (Pink Paislee); Nailheads; Nesties; Scalloped border (Die-namic); Buttons; Crystal Stickles

Here are a couple of quick, simple Christmas cards I made a couple of weeks ago. Both of them feature stamps from Waltzing Mouse. The card on the left uses paper by MME, a scalloped circle nestie and a Die-namic chain border.

Card on the right uses Nestie ornaments. I have added tiny gems to the ornaments and a silver bow. A simple strip of red card on either side of the sentiment finishes it off.

I'd like to enter the card on the right into:

Crazy 4 Challenges- 1 layer

One Stop Craft Challenge- no designer paper

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Waltzing Mouse); Nesties (scalloped circle & ornaments); Paper (MME); Chain border (Die-namics); Bow (recycled); Gems; Assorted cardstock

Anything Goes Challenge- To the letter

Hello all! Hope you're all well. I'm a little late posting this so won't linger and will get on with the challenge! Today's challenge over at Anything Goes is "to the letter" so think about monogrammed cards, chipboard letters etc.. Let's see what you can come up with! Have a look at the DT work, it's so varied and gorgeous and is a great example of how different everyone can interpret a theme!

So here is my card:

I have used Strummabella by Stamping Bella. I coloured her with a mixture of watercolour and lyra pencils as usual and a warm copic outline. I lurve her hair!! I decided that she was probably singing "happy birthday to you!..." so that was the theme of my card so I picked out some old chipboard letters I had. I didn't have any numbers and thought it would push the card out of balance anyway so I diecut a "2" using a Sizzix die. Papers are by Basic Grey- don't forget you can buy your Basic Grey Papers from Lynn at The Craft Den!

Here is a close up of my colouring. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out if I do say so myself!!!

And another close-up! The ribbon is actually recycled off a choccie box! Gorgeous!

I'd like to enter this into:

Pollycraft- girls, girls, girls

By the Cute and Girly- anything goes

Stamptacular Sunday- anything goes

Crafty Creations- 3 papers, 2 embellies (ribbon & nailheads), 1 image

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Stamping Bella); Lyra & watercolour pencils; Copics; Papers (Basic Grey); Assorted cardstock; Ribbon (recycled); Chipboard letters (K&Co); Number diecuts (Sizzix); Nailheads (Josy Rose)

Class act!

Hello everyone! Hope you're enjoying your weekend. I have 2 cards to show you today. The first one I'm really excited to show you as it's my second A La Mode card! I'm just such a sucker for these stamps!!!

Here she is- "You Rule"! This is a card for my friend who is a teacher.

As usual I coloured with watercolour & lyra pencils and added copic shadow. I did some major paper piecing so she matches her background papers. I LOVE these papers by MME "Happy Go Lucky". As you know I love bright colours on my cards, I'm not really a pastel girl so these papers are just perfect for me!!

I used a Die-namics die to get the notebook edge which I thought was perfect to go with the teacher theme. The little star is a PTI tiny tag die. I also used my new skinny nestie which are perfect for the A La Modes.

I'd like to enter this into:

Sketch Saturday- sketch

Papertake Weekly- anything goes

Fab n Funky-diecuts/punches

C.R.A.F.T.- bright colours

One Stop Craft- anything goes

Close up! How sweet is she??! I LOVE her little ditzy blouse and neck tie.

Crafty stash used: Stamps (MFT); Watercolour and lyra pencils; Copics; Papers (MME); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Notebook die (MFT); Tag (PTI); Bakers twine; Nailheads; Flower

This is a bit of an unusual card for me in that I don't really like doing cards that don't involve colouring!! But I think it turned out OK. It's a card for my sis's partner who is currently having guitar lessons. I used the Rock On stamp set from Papertrey Ink which includes the sentiment in the rock font! I also used Papertrey Ink Bitty Background blocks to do the 4 dotty blocks. Stars are nestie dies. Paper is by We R Memory Keepers.

I'd like to enter this into:

Passion for Papertrey- geometric

ABC- anything goes

Crafty stash used: Stamps (PTI); Paper (We R Memory Keepers); Stars (nesties); Nailheads

Call me a princess!

Hello all! Hope you're all well.

I've just realised today that I STILL haven't shown you my new craft room!!! Doh!!! I guess the thing is, it's not quite finished, I still want to add some finishing touches so I wanted to wait til it's finished properly. I promise that it won't be too long before I show you- either I'm going to get these bits finished or I'll make the decision to show you it anyway!!! Can't wait to show you my new little stamping annexe!!

Onto today's card- a card for my friend's little girl's birthday. She's a real girly girl so I thought she'd like this card and especially the sentiment!

The stamp and sentiment are both Elzybells. I coloured her with copics and paper pieced her dress. I added gold Stickles to her crown and Glossy Accents to her shoes to give them some shine! I have used my new nesties labels 18 (see below) to cut her out and added some sponged pale pink ink. Also used other new nesties labels 9 for mounting.

I love these papers- so cute and bubblegum-y! They are by Pink Paislee and October Afternoon.

I'd like to enter this into:

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge-bright colours

ABC Challenge- anything goes

Fab n Funky-die cuts/punches

Divas by Design- button up

Papertake Weekly- anything goes

Pollycraft- sketch

Crafts 4 Eternity-anything goes

Hmmm, here we go with my other "little" craft purchases!!!! To be fair, I did a big Stamping Bella order and have kept under half of it- the rest will be for my birthday and Christmas!! I have bought 4 of the new Uptown Girl stamps (2 shown here). I am SO excited about this new release, I can't wait to use them and show you how fabby they are!! Also here is 2 Pies Lulu, Swinging Mavis and Housework Fairy by Mo Manning. I also treated myself to some more Die-namics- essential purchases as far as I'm concerned!!

Errrr, and some more nesties. To be fair (do you see how I'm trying to justify??!) I don't have a great number of different styles of nesties- just the basic ones. I'd really like to try mixing and matching between the sets, something I've not been able to do before so watch this space for some nestie mixing!!

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Elzybells); Copics; Lyra pencils; Papers (Pink Paislee & October Afternoon); Nesties; Stickles; Glossy Accents; Nailheads; Buttons

Anything Goes Challenge- Diecuts & punches

Happy Tuesday! Yes, it's time for a new challenge over at Anything Goes Challenge blog! This week's challenge is another nice and easy one for you- it's "die cuts and/or punches". Can't wait to see what you come up with!

For my card, I decided to make another Christmas card. This one is for my brother. I coloured with watercolour and lyra pencils and added shadow with a warm grey copic. The papers are by Basic Grey (Jovial) available from The Craft Den as are all your Magnolia stamps!!

The Christmas ornament is created using ornament and oval nestabilities in conjunction with Waltzing Mouse stamps (Vintage Ornaments).

I'd like to enter this into:

Crafts 4 Eternity- anything goes

Crafty Pad- one for the boys

Pile It On- doing something fun

One Stop- just for men

ABC Challenge- anything goes

Fab n Funky- recipe

Simon Says- anything goes

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Magnolia, Waltzing Mouse); Watercolour & lyra pencils; Copics; Papers (Basic Grey); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Pearls; Ribbon (Laura Ashley)